Setting a goal is one thing that we must all consider in life. Whether you are a professional, a service provider, a student or an entrepreneur, you need to be able to set clearly defined goals. It encourages you to pursue and work harder.

But what exactly is a goal?

A goal is something you intend to achieve at all cost. It could be to increase sales, boost income or to reduce weight. Whatever that may be, you need to know exactly how to achieve your goals and dreams.

The tips below can help you get started:

Clarify your goal

Before you can achieve your goal, you need to be clear about it.

For one, goals are different from mere wishes. Wishing to get more money isn’t a goal as it is just a wish. It will only become a goal when you are definite about the amount you want to make.

For you to get more money, you must ask yourself questions such as these:

How much do I want to make?

What can I do to increase my financial base?

For instance, I may have to work extra hours to add to my income or I may need other streams of income to increase my earnings.

I know of a young man who works in an agricultural research institute. Although he has a monthly income from his job, he still anchors events during the weekends. Aside from the monthly salary he gets, he also makes money during weekends. This is an example of how a person can increase earnings.

You must write down your goals

Most people don’t write down their goals. They only rely on their mind to focus on what they want to achieve. Unfortunately, that isn’t a good idea.

When we write down our goals, it becomes easier for us to know exactly what we are aiming for. Clearly written goals can help you to ponder and reflect on what you need to do or work on.

Every time you see the goals you have stated out to pursue, your subconscious mind instantly generate ideas on how to forge ahead and make them a reality. Written goals can encourage you to control the direction of your life.

Constantly evaluate your goal

This is a critical aspect of goal setting. A man does not put yam on fire and immediately go to sleep. He must constantly check it. Otherwise, it will burn. The same applies to goal setting.

You must constantly review your goals. You can check it on a bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. This will help you determine whether you need to change your strategies or continue with what you are doing.

Set a deadline

Whenever you are pursuing a goal, also set a deadline for it. Setting a deadline puts you on your toes and drive you to work extremely hard to hit the target. When you don’t set a time frame for yourself, you’ll find it hard to focus and feel motivated.

Knowing how to achieve your goals and dreams isn’t that hard. In fact, just by following these tips, you should be able to work on your goals and conquer the challenges you’ll encounter along the way.

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After months of exchanging long-distance compliments, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin sit down on Monday for their first ever summit, a potential political minefield at home for the U.S. president but a geopolitical win for his Russian counterpart.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s criticism of Russia’s Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline to Europe is an egregious example of unscrupulous competition and it worries Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying on Monday.

Elon Musk seems not only intent on burning all the goodwill he earned for trying to help last week’s Thai cave rescue, but rolling around in its ashes, too. In a series of extraordinarily offensive, now deleted tweets, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO called a British diver who participated in last week’s dangerous rescue mission a “pedo guy,” adding in another tweet “bet ya a signed dollar it’s true.”

Musk’s tantrum was triggered by an interview the diver, Vern Unsworth, gave CNN International last Friday, in which he called the small submarine Musk had SpaceX engineers build a “PR stunt” and said Musk could stick it “where it hurts.” Though the submarine was intended to help the 12 boys stranded with their soccer coach navigate flooded cave passageways, Unsworth, who helped plan the rescue operation and recruited other cave diving experts, said it “had absolutely no chance of working.”

Unworth added that Musk “had no conception of what the cave passage was like. The submarine, I believe, was about 5 foot 6 long, rigid, so it wouldn’t have gone round corners or round any obstacles. It wouldn’t hadn’t have made the first 50 meters into the cave from the dive start point.” When the reporter mentioned that Musk had gone into the cave on Tuesday, Unsworth said he was “asked to leave very quickly. And so he should have been.”

The rescue mission, made even more challenging by monsoon season, claimed the life of a Thai Navy seal before all boys were saved last week.

This is not the first time that Musk has clashed with a member of the cave rescue team. As confirmation came in that the last group of boys and their coach had been freed on July 10, the head of the rescue mission, Narongsak Osatanakorn, told reporters that “although [Musk’s] technology is good and sophisticated it’s not practical for this mission.”

In response, Musk dismissed the credentials of Ostanakorn, who led the joint command center coordinating the operation and is former acting governor of Chiang Rai, the province where the cave is located. In a tweet he said Ostanakorn was “described inaccurately as ‘rescue chief’” and “is not the subject matter expert” (the Columbus Dispatch reports that Ostanakorn holds a Master’s degree from Ohio State University, where he studied geodetic engineering and surveying).

Though Musk’s tweet about Ostanakorn was sharply criticized, many still gave him credit for his efforts. After all, engineering a submarine in a few days to save a group of children is an impressive and laudable feat. While Musk is known for going on strange Twitter rants, however, his attack on Unsworth is an entirely different stratosphere. In addition to defaming Unsworth in a particularly heinous way, the implication that a British diver would only go to Thailand, one of the world’s top diving destinations, for child sex tourism is problematic and arguably racist, as many have pointed out.

Elon Musk implying that British expats who live in Thailand are all kiddie fiddlers?Erm… wow… isn’t that kind of a little bit racist?

Sure, Elon Musk calling a diver who help rescue 12 boys a ‘pedo’ just because he lives in Thailand is insulting, inflammatory and borderline libelous, but let’s not forget that it is also horrifically racist.

He didn’t just call the British rescuer in Thailand a pedophile. He called him a pedophile because he couldn’t imagine another reason for a white guy to be in Thailand. Which is a false assumption. Sometimes white guys visit Thailand to show off their useless submarines.